DUP should respect the views of voters
THE old bigotry and hatred is alive and well among a minority in Northern Ireland. They don’t want a Catholic around the place, never mind running the place.
There is not a chance in hell of the DUP voting in a Sinn Fein First Minister even though the nationalist party slightly increased its vote.
It held its 27 seats in the Assembly Elections to become by democratic right the bigger party in the six counties.
Love them or hate them the Shinners with a deliberate low-key campaign did it.
It was a memorable history defining moment that many older people on the nationalist side who grew up in an apartheid society riddled with bitter tribal warfare, thought they’d never live to see.
The hardline DUP and the Jim Allister led TUV were choking on their Union Jacks.
The DUP are using the excuse of the Northern Ireland Protocol for not going back into the Assembly.
Their leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has predictably resorted to the usual ultimatums and is trying to hold the northern political system to ransom. He wants the Protocol gone or they are staying out. He is using a cross-community veto to defy democracy and the wishes of the majority of the people who want Stormont up and running to deal
with bread and butter issues like the costs of living crisis and the health
service. The
Protocol has put a border down the Irish Sea from a customs and trading point of view between mainland Britain and the North. They see it wrongly or rightly as a weakening of the Union.
It is true there has been some disruption in the transport of some goods between Britain and the North, but it is not as bad or damaging as they are making it out to be.
The vast majority of those elected last weekend to the Assembly are in favour of the Protocol because it keeps the North in the European Single Market.
And from an economic point of view, it gives the six counties the best of both worlds.
But then the majority of people in the North are against Brexit and voted to stay in the EU. The DUP, however, saw Brexit
as a chance to restore a hard border on the island of Ireland in defiance of the Good Friday Agreement.
There is no doubt if Donaldson had won the election and he was leading the biggest party he would expect to take the First Minister’s crown and for Sinn Fein to take the Deputy First Ministers office as the nationalist party has done up until now so he could take office.
He would have left the issue of the Protocol for the British Government and the EU to sort out.
Instead he is now only using it as cover to stop the rightful election of Sinn Fein northern leader Michelle O’neill, as First Minister.
Neither he or his party has the honesty to admit they just can not bring themselves to go into power with a nationalist-led Government, for fear some of their hardline supporters might never forgive them.
Their position is both shocking and appalling but also a two fingers to everyone who came out to vote.
Donaldson and the DUP’S plan is very simple, they are now playing for time.
They will reject any progress in the re-negotiation of the Protocol over the coming weeks and then another election will have to be called in six months if the parties have failed to form a Government.
The DUP is then hoping it can galvanise enough unionist support through its failed policies of fear, to give it the biggest number of seats so it can return to power.
They will then have the hard neck if that happens to expect Sinn Fein to go in with them.
For the likes of Sir Jeffrey and the DUP democracy is only relevant so long as they win.
However, there is no guarantee this will happen and it may well backfire.
Nationalist and unionist support in the North is currently running at 40% each.
The area to watch is the growing middle ground and the fantastic performance of the Alliance Party in the election, with Others as they are known now accounting for 20% of the vote in the North.
Alliance doubled its seat number from nine to 17. It is gathering its support from young people both Catholic and Protestants who are sick and tired of tribalism and the politics of the past.
They don’t see themselves as either orange or green and just want to live in a place that can look forward on liberal, social issues and have a bright economic future. Now is not the time either for a vote on a united Ireland either.
We need to build a shared island between north and south so the trust between all our people and their prosperity grows.
As the late John Hume always said we need to unite the people before the land.
If you throw the tricolour and union jacks away there are very little differences between any of us.
The sooner Donaldson comes to his senses the better.
The people of the North deserve their own local Government and nobody should be allowed to stand in its way.
The people have spoken so respect their vote.